Two Afghan Soldiers Gunned Down

Published 8:00 pm, Sunday, April 13, 2003

Two Afghan soldiers were shot and killed in southern Afghanistan, while unidentified attackers threw hand-grenades at Italian troops on patrol in the east, the U.S. military said Monday.

No Italians were injured in Saturday's grenade attack near the eastern city of Khost, the military said in a statement from its headquarters at Bagram Air Base, north of the capital.

Two grenades were thrown, but one did not detonate. Italian troops detained one person after the incident.

In a separate attack on Sunday, one rocket was fired toward a coalition base in Orgun in eastern Paktika province. No damage or casualties were reported, the statement said.

Also on Sunday, two Afghan soldiers allied to coalition troops were shot and killed near the troubled town of Spinboldak, in southern Kandahar province near the Pakistan border. It was unclear in what circumstances the deaths occurred.

Afghan authorities say remnants of the former Taliban regime, ousted in a U.S.-led war in 2001, are reorganizing in an effort to destabilize President Hamid Karzai's government.

Firefights with suspected Taliban fighters and security forces have broken out in recent weeks in northwest Badghis province as well as Paktika and Kandahar in the south.

U.S. military outposts scattered across eastern and southern Afghanistan frequently come under rocket attack, but few casualties have been reported from such attacks.

Coalition forces have about 11,500 soldiers in Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban holdouts their allies. The United States is providing the backbone of the force with about 8,500 troops. Italy has 1,000 soldiers in the coalition, with a 500-strong contingent operating from Camp Salerno base in Khost.

In Kabul, a spokesman for the 5,000 strong international peacekeeping force that patrols the capital said explosives ordnance disposal experts were investigating the cause of an explosion that rattled the city's eastern outskirts Sunday night.

"First reports talked about a rocket attack but this is definitely not true," said Lt. Col. Thomas Lobbering.

"It was an explosive device … But the details, what type of device it was, whether it was a mine or whatever, that's still under investigation."

The blast left a small crater by the side of a road. Police at the scene said three officers were wounded by flying glass, one of them seriously. Lobbering said he was not aware of any casualties.